Welcome to MeanMesa! The blog for those who have become suspicious of everything else...

Monday, November 14, 2016

The Kremlin Keeps Moving Closer to the Trump Oval Office

Randi Rhodes, the FBI and James Comey

Is MeanMesa getting ready to "eat crow?"

MeanMesa sure hopes so...

There has not been a time when staying abreast of the nation's news was more important than it is right now. The Trump election has hurled the Republic into a nasty brew of an economic train wreck coupled with a bone rattling Constitutional crisis.

Although cash is a little scarce around the SHORT CURRENT ESSAYS GALACTIC COMMAND CENTER, MeanMesa actually purchased a pod cast [$10/month] from the recently resurrected Randi Rhodes Show. Of course, much of what Rhodes has to share on her program is interesting, but a certain statement she made a few days ago is now "front and center" on our national stage. [If you are interested in joining the growing number of Rhodes' pod cast subscribers, here's the link/RANDI RHODES Home]

Just when FBI Director James Comey seems to have sabotaged the Hillary campaign in the final days before the election with his unintelligible FBI memo about additional emails, MeanMesa was appropriately infuriated. Clinton's poll numbers began to plummet within hours. We all know the rest of the story.

MeanMesa even went so far as to call for the FBI Director's dismissal [Obama - Fire the FBI Director NOW!/MeanMesa], a move which was largely only symbolic because FBI Directors enjoy an "irrevocable" 10 year tenure upon appointment to that position. It turns out that this was, in fact, one of those rare occasions when MeanMesa and Randi Rhodes' "tracks crossed."

So, what did Randi say?

Well, amid all the ranting and raving about Comey's election swinging e-mail, Randi continued to trust the Director's integrity and patriotism. In her view the FBI Director was maneuvering himself into a "civil war resistant" position with enough "patriotic strength" to survive indicting Trump. She may very well have been <grumble...grumble> right...<grumble...> again.

Dancing With FISA

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978

Making the "real world" even more terrifying.

For a quick refresher on what may be facing the Trump, have a look at FISA.

The FBI has issued a FISA warrant to investigate Donald Trump’s private Russian email server, for national security purposes. According to Louise Mensch of Heat Street:

“Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.”

The account is being investigated for possible banking offenses and ties to the Russian government, and, as the report claims, the FBI has rejected claims of an investigation in order to protect the President-Elect during the campaigning process. Last week, the director of the FBI, James Comey, released a vague memo about the investigation into the Clinton Foundation, causing many to come forward and say that Comey had broken the Hatch Law, which prohibits government officials from interfering with the democratic process.

Going there: if you are sued by Trump you won’t get discovery if he’s under FISA traps.

The FBI agents who spoke with the NY Times likely did not have knowledge of an investigation because the criminal and counter-intelligence parts of the FBI work “independently,” and so, an agent from one department would not necessarily have knowledge about what another department is working on. The report continues:

“The warrant covers any ‘US person’ connected to this investigation, and thus covers Donald Trump and at least three further men who have either formed part of his campaign or acted as his media surrogates. The warrant was sought, they say, because actionable intelligence on the matter provided by friendly foreign agencies could not properly be examined without a warrant by US intelligence as it involves ‘US Persons’ who come under the remit of the FBI and not the CIA. Should a counter-intelligence investigation lead to criminal prosecutions, sources say, the Justice Department is concerned that the chain of evidence have a basis in a clear warrant.”

The FBI was reportedly “alarmed” when Carter Page took a trip to Moscow just one week before the DNC was hacked. The FBI later determined that the attack came from Russia, and soon after, Donald Trump claimed that there was no definite knowledge of who hacked the DNC while speaking at the third presidential debate.

“If a FISA warrant was issued, it does not necessarily mean that the court considered any U.S. persons as literal ‘spies.’ I can imagine an argument having been made that there was probable cause to believe they were “agents of influence” who were unwittingly being influenced by a foreign power. If the operation concerns suspected money laundering involving a foreign government, the FISA warrant could theoretically encompass U.S. persons in that limited context. A FISA warrant is authorization to collect evidence, not to arrest.”

During that investigation, it became clear that Donald Trump’s private Russian server was communicating with Alpha Bank, which seemed very fishy and highly coincidental. According to Heat Street, “the FISA warrant was allegedly granted in part because of the involvement of Vladimir Putin’s own daughters. One is married to a senior official at Gazprom, where Carter Page and Paul Manafort reportedly have holdings; another to Kirill Shamalov, a banking official.” A FISA warrant is a warrant that calls for an investigation into foreign intelligence affairs. This means that Donald Trump is being investigated specifically for criminal communications and direct ties to Russia and dictator, Vladimir Putin, whose advisor revealed after the election, that he had been in contact with Trump.